In the last decade, several Eastern members of the European Union (EU) have regressed in their democratic quality. This ‘democratic backsliding’ has most notably occurred in Hungary where the...Show moreIn the last decade, several Eastern members of the European Union (EU) have regressed in their democratic quality. This ‘democratic backsliding’ has most notably occurred in Hungary where the populist government led by Viktor Orbán continues to infringe upon the liberal democratic values championed by the EU. As the Hungarian populist government employs a Eurosceptic narrative, its continued success in combination with the rather pro-EU population is puzzling. Applying a multidimensional framework of EU attitudes, this study conducts a quantitative analysis of public opinion to explain the aforementioned puzzle and gauge the impact Euroscepticism has on the continued success of populism. It is argued that the government uses the underlying dimensions of EU attitudes to varying extent to mobilise public support. The binary regression’s results show that popular EU attitudes are not a definitive predictor for populist support. Nonetheless, the findings illustrate that the continued success of the Hungarian government is attributable to nationalist sentiments in the unique post-communist context.Show less
A commonly observed phenomenon is villagers have more trust in the central government rather than their local government in rural China. This article changes survey settings to urban areas and...Show moreA commonly observed phenomenon is villagers have more trust in the central government rather than their local government in rural China. This article changes survey settings to urban areas and seeks to study sources of the trust gap and implications behind it. Survey findings indicate the so-called hierarchy trust does exist in urban China. Moreover, drawing on analyses of questionnaires and interviews, this article concludes that urbanites’ evaluations of government’s performance and intention, belief in Confucianism and collectivism values, life satisfaction, previous experiences with government significantly shape their political trust.Show less
